Cooke, Vernon, Walker, Jackson & Milner

This private bank was established in 1750 by George Cooke (later George Cooke Yarborough, died 1818), gentleman; Childers Walbanke Childers (died 1802), gentleman; Thomas Swann (died 1803), son of a York banker; and Richard Ellison, later a founding partner in Smith, Ellison & Co of Lincoln. After Ellison's death in 1792 his son John Ellison, a timber merchant, joined the partnership. At that time the firm was located at 12 High Street, Doncaster, and was known as Cooke & Co. It later became known as Yarborough & Co.

In 1808 Henry Saville Foljambe of Osberton Hall near Worksop joined the partnership in order to establish a separate but related bank at Retford, Nottinghamshire. Retford Bank or Foljambe's Bank had the same partners as the Doncaster bank, namely George Cooke Yarborough, John Walbank Childers, John Ellison, Leonard Walbank Childers & Henry Saville Foljambe. The Retford bank had an agency in Worksop from about 1817 and at Ollerton from 1864.

John Walbank Childers died in 1812 and George Parker, brother-in-law of John Ellison and son-in-law of George Cooke Yarborough, became a partner. In 1819 William Bryan Cooke, nephew of George and later a baronet, joined the partnership. In 1831 Foljambe retired, although he continued to manage the Retford bank, and was succeeded by Francis Thornhaugh Foljambe. Thomas Walker, grandson of a Sheffield banker, entered the partnership as managing partner for the Doncaster bank.

In 1847 the bank absorbed Leatham, Tew & Co, and by 1866 was operating agencies at Thorne and Crowle. In 1868, when Granville Harcourt Vernon and Thomas Walker retired, the bank was acquired by Beckett & Co of Leeds.

Detailed list of name changes

• Ellison, Cooke, Childers & Swann 1750-1792
• Cooke & Co (later Yarborough & Co) 1792-1808
• George Cooke Yarborough, Leonard Walbank Childers, Henry Saville Foljambe c.1808-1812
• George Cooke Yarborough, Leonard Walbank Childers, Henry Saville Foljambe & George Parker from 1812
• Cooke Childers & Co by 1820
• Sir William Bryan Cooke, Bart, Henry Saville Foljambe, George Parker & William Walker by 1826
• Sir WB Cooke, Bart, Francis Thornhaugh Foljambe & Thomas Walker from 1832
• Cooke, Vernon, Walker, Jackson & Milner by 1858

Summary of our archive holdings

Our archival records of Cooke, Vernon, Walker, Jackson & Milner have the reference code COO.

For help understanding words used here, check our glossary of banking record types (PDF 68 KB).

Partnership records

• partners' private papers 1783-1858, 1864
• partnership agreements 1785-1813, 1847-1867
• correspondence with London agent 1807-1819
• partners' correspondence and papers 1837-1846, 1841-1859; 1854-1870
• amalgamation papers, Leatham, Tew & Co 1843-1847
• balance sheets and letter re failure of Parker, Shore & Co 1843-1850
• amalgamation papers 1866-1876

Financial records

• balance sheets 1802-1805
• private ledgers 1807-1867
• general statement books 1809-1848
• abstracted balances 1861-1866
• receipts for purchase of gilts 1864-1865
• papers re statements and balances; abstracts of accounts 1866-1868

Customer records

• private papers 1783-1859
• bonds 1792-1837, 1864
• bills 1807, 1815-1818, 1842-1845
• customers' account statements 1824-1825, 1831-1838
• promissory note 1828
• customer passbooks 1831-1846
• cheques 1835, c.1860
• security for advance 1850
• cheque forms n.d., 1860

Head office branch records

• branch balance statements 1826-1846, 1861-1866

Staff records

• correspondence re appointments and resignations 1852-1866

Property records

• tax assessment papers 1842
• correspondence re properties 1809, 1844-1867
• premises valuations 1842-1868
• draft memorandum re deposit of deeds for security 1852
• correspondence re the installation of telegraph wires in Doncaster premises 1857-1862
• architectural drawing, Doncaster premises n.d.

Note issue records

• banknotes: 1807-1866, proofs c.1850
• banker's licence 1811
• letter re note circulation returns 1861
• banknotes, drafts and receipts 19th century

Marketing records

• presscutting re opening hours 1859
• notice announcing the dissolution of Cooke, Vernon, Walker, Jackson & Milner and acquisition by Beckett & Co, Leeds 1868